Hey all,
Yesterday i continued setting a bevel on my straight razor and I'm getting frustrated! I've been working on this over and over and still cannot get it very sharp. I use a Norton 1k and my method has been doing the circles on each side, then 10x strokes, then repeat. I stopped doing the circles because I was afraid I'd be overdoing it by taking off too much metal and did only x strokes continuously and periodically checking the sharpness. I've made some progress- under a light there is an even shine running along the blade on both sides and it does cut leg hair, but barely- I have to use a little pressure along the skin and it will cut well enough to where I have bald patches on my leg but will not cut the hair by grazing it. I even moved on to pyramid honing on my 4K/8k stone to thinking maybe the bevel was good enough to move on and get it to shave ready but no dice! So then went back to the 1k to set the bevel again!
Is it normal to take this long? Should I just be patient and keep at it or am I doing something wrong? Should I go back to 40 circles then x strokes and repeat this cycles until it's ready or just do x strokes? Is my pressure too hard/too light?
Btw, I have the spine taped and I make sure to change it before it wears away so I don't think there's any problems there. And the razor is a vintage ja henckles in pretty nice condition.
Thank you!